The Five Time Mary and Irene Were Together
by AcromantulaBitch
Summary: And the one time they got it right. AUs. Eventual Mary/Irene implied Sherlock/Watson. Non-explicit.


**Been over at the Sherlock Holmes kink meme. Kink memes are my favorite things. What did I do with my time before I discovered them?**

**Five times fic for this prompt; "au!irene/mary. not higher than pg-13, there doesn't even have to be proper action tbh.  
just an interesting and au way of them to get together. :3"**

**I had intended for this to be a mini-fill. lol. Yeah. That didn't work out like I'd planned. Really the only reason I even started to write this was so I could make one of the AUs Star Trek xD But I got into it.**

**Anyway.**

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**FIVE TIMES MARY AND IRENE WERE TOGETHER.**

**ONE.**

**London, England. 1887.**

Mary nervously smoothed down her hair for the ninth time in ten minutes. She stared at her face in the mirror, barely recognizing it as a maid laced up her dress. In an hour she would be walking down the aisle of St. Bernard's Church. She would be starting her new life with John, and by default with Sherlock Holmes as well. The two would not be separated, John had said he was finished with him but he was deceiving himself. There was a bond there that she was sure would not, should not, be broken. She often wondered where she stood with them. Certainly she believed that John loved her, but she also believed that he loved Sherlock just as much, if not more than he loved her. Perhaps she and John would come to share a similar bond, one gained by experience, shared adventures and shared scars, but she doubted that it would be the same with her. Somehow she found herself to be fine with this.

The maid finished with the dress, and left her to apply her own make-up. Mary did not move. She was unsure why she was so nervous. She wanted this. Wanted to mary John, to become Mrs. Mary Watson. But she found that she could not move. The old clock on the wall told her that she had thirty minutes to finish getting ready. There was a light knock on her door.

Mary didn't feel like company but she was never rude. "Enter." Even her voice sounded strange at the moment. The door opened to reveal a young woman with red-brown hair and the most striking eyes Mary had ever seen. She was wearing a beautiful red dress and hat. The woman smiled at her like they were old friends and closed the door behind her. Mary had never met her in her life.

The woman whom Mary had never met surveyed the room briefly and upon seeing the tea set, busied herself with getting both of them tea. Mary felt as though she should say something but her words were currently failing her along with her motor skills. She settled for watching the woman as she brought the tea over and set it on the desk. The woman then got a chair from the other side of the room, placed it next to Mary's and sat in it. She smiled brightly at her, picking up her tea and taking a sip. "You should drink it before it gets cold." She supplied unhelpfully. Mary did not feel as though this was an appropriate start to the conversation.

"I'm sorry, but who are you exactly?" The woman whom Mary had still technically not met since she still didn't know her name put her tea down and her hands in her lap.

"A mutual acquaintance of ours asked me to assist you in your wedding preparations. He also said that you would be having trouble with your nerves and asked me to talk to you about it. I've been married four times you see and so I have the experience needed to help you. Or I could just do your make-up." Mary was willing to bet that their mutual acquaintance was Sherlock Holmes. She was tempted to politely decline, but she really did need help, and this woman intrigued her.

"Alright. I appreciate it." Mary moved her hands from her lap to pick up her tea. The woman's eyes went wide with shock when she saw Mary's ring.

"But that's... My word what a beautiful ring...where ever did you get it?" Mary followed her gaze down to the giant diamond. A present from...Sherlock Holmes. Of course.

"From a mutual acquaintance I believe." The woman's eyebrows quirked but she didn't comment further. She began to organize Mary's make-up, selecting the colors and brushes she desired. When everything was as she wanted it she instructed Mary to close her eyes so she could do her eye make-up. Mary complied. She leaned forward slightly and raised her eyebrows to allow the woman better access.

"So. Are you excited about getting married?" Mary left her eyes closed. She was unsure how to answer, or even if she wanted to answer at all. This woman was a stranger to her.

"I...yes. I believe I am."

"But you're nervous too."

"Yes." Mary was decidedly uncomfortable with this conversation. She wondered what kind of power this woman had over her that she hasn't thrown her out yet.

"It's right to be nervous, especially if you're a proper lady and have never been with a man before." Mary's eyes flew open at that, outrage flooding her system. How dare she?

Mary opened her mouth to protest, but the woman put her finger on her lips, silencing her. Mary was shocked. "I'm sorry if I offended you. I tend to do that to people. Still friends?" She smiled again and removed the finger.

Mary could honestly not think of anything to say. So she just said, "Are you going to finish my make-up or will I have to do it myself?" Mary was surprised at her own nerve, but this woman brought out the strangest feelings in her. The woman just raised her eyebrows and got out the blush. She said nothing as she applied it, and nothing again as she applied Mary's lipstick.

"There. You're all done. Very pretty." She winked at her. Mary glanced at herself in the mirror, her face was flawless.

"Well, it was nice to meet you but I had better go going, I have business in town." The woman started to leave, putting on her gloves and walking towards the door. For some reason the idea that she would not be attending her wedding very relieving to her.

"Wait." Mary's voice was soft, and she didn't know why she stopped her, but the woman turned around and so Mary had to say something.

"What's your name?" It seemed safer than the other things she was tempted to say. 'Don't leave me' being the one she wished to say the most, though she had no idea why.

The woman just smiled and said, "I'm sorry I wasn't more helpful to you. Goodbye Mary Morstan."

She left.

Mary never saw her again.

**TWO**

**Washington DC.**

Mary sat at the cold metal and poked at her food, whatever it was. She glanced around at the other occupants of the room. About four dozen women in drab prison garb and six guards patrolling. One of the guards glanced over and saw her looking, he narrowed his eyes. Mary looked down sharply, she didn't want to get involved in anything.

She went back to picking at her food. Maybe she should try to get a hunger strike going, it wasn't like the food was edible anyway.

The woman sitting next to her coughed. Mary glanced over at her, eager for any distraction. The woman, girl that was, was in a similar state to Mary, poking at her food and looked generally dejected. Which Mary figured made sense, considering they were in prison. She supposed that properly dressed and washed, the girl would be very pretty, but under the present conditions, not so much. She actually looked rather sick. Mary wondered if she'd come in with the rest of Mary's group, or if she was in for a normal crime.

The girl noticed her staring and gave her a hostile look. Mary gave her a curt nod looked back down to her food. She coughed again, but this time Mary didn't bother looking up, she had more important things on her mind. In a week her brother John was due to come visit her and she intended to use him to get some information out to the others about their condition, and get some information from him about the state of the public. After all, the fight for woman's rights didn't stop just because Mary's group was dragged off to prison. She just felt that it was a shame that they couldn't do much to help from where they were.

The girl coughed again. And again. She didn't seem to be able to stop. Mary's first response was annoyance, but she quickly realized that the girl was having a legitimate medical issue. She looked around for a guard, but they were all either otherwise engaged or not inclined to help a prisoner. There was a communal water pitcher in the middle of the table though, so Mary discreetly grabbed it and poured some water into her cup. She offered it to the girl, who ignored her, waving her off. Her coughing was worse. Now Mary was annoyed. She was a nurse, dammit, she knew what she was doing. She forced the girl to take the cup, and after a few more seconds, the girl drank from it. It worked. She stopped coughing, Mary felt unnecessarily smug.

The girl gave her a weird look. "Thanks." She whispered so the guards wouldn't hear.

Mary nodded at her, turning back to her 'food'. The girl licked her dry lips and pressed on. "Um. Aren't you Mary Watson? The woman's rights activist?"

Mary nodded again, turning her head slightly to show she was engaged in the conversation.

"I just-" The girl broke off as a guard passed by. "I've just heard a lot about you." She seemed to be studying Mary. She had huge eyes.

Mary didn't really care about this girl's obvious hero worship of her, but it was better than silence. "What are you in prison for?" Mary figured that she should probably ask, considering it could be anything from loitering to homicide.

"Petty theft, nothing fancy just, you know, trying to get by." Mary nodded like she understood even though she came from a fairly well-off family and had never had to steal anything in her life.

The girl didn't ask why she was in prison, she already knew about the demonstration getting broken up and the protesters being thrown in jail for 'trespassing'. Mary grit her teeth. Trespassing her ass.

"I shouldn't be here for too much longer though. They couldn't pin me down for much."

"Yes, it should be the same for us as well."

"What did they get you for?"

"Trespassing."

The girl raised her delicate eyebrows. "Oh I see." She was smirking. "Well, you should be right about them not being able to hold you for that for too long."

"Yes. What is your name? I'm afraid we've gone out of order in this conversation."

The girl smiled at her, it would have been pretty if she wasn't so thin. It really was a good thing she would be getting out soon, she really didn't look so good. "It's Irene."

Mary considered her options for a moment before coming to a decision.

"Here's the thing Irene," Irenes' eyes widened slightly and she leaned toward Mary. "I have something that needs to get to a friend of mine, Alice Paul. It's a piece of paper that contains some information that need to get to her. Do you understand?"

Irene opened her mouth to answer, but a guards hand landing on her shoulder stopped her.

"Adler. The warden wants to see you. You're being released."

Irene blinked. "Oh. Well, then." She stood up and as she did so Mary's hand shot out. She made like she was shaking hands with her, and slipped a note up her sleeve. Adler's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything except for, "Thank you for the water, I appreciate it." She winked at her.

Mary smiled back. She felt as though she could trust her, and it really was essential that the information get to Paul. Irene seemed like a smart girl. She was a nice girl, if naive, and- wait. Adler. Irene Adler. Holy hell. That was why they had kept her for so long despite the lack of charges, why the guard had looked so unhappy about her release. Mary had just given that critical piece of information to Irene Adler, international criminal. Oh, God. Paul was going to kill her.

Mary would receive the shock of her life the next week when John congratulates her on getting the note to Paul from prison. Apparently even thieves have things they believe in.

**THREE**

**Bethel, New York. 1969.**

Mary lay entwined with her new friends Hikari and John in a patch of sun. They had lost their blanket sometime between seven pm yesterday and four am this morning, but they didn't mourn it's loss. 'Live and let die' as John always said. Maybe the blanket was happier where ever it was. Mary laughed out loud at this thought and Hikari laughed with her. Hikari was currently engaged in running her hands through John's hair and looking amazed by the feeling. They had recently taken two hits of...something. Pills of some kind. Regardless of what the pills were, they were feeling pretty good about everything. John had said something about how he had gone to med school for awhile anyway so it was probably fine.

Mary wasn't even really sure where they were any more. They had met in Philadelphia and hitched a ride to Woodstock together, but hadn't that been like, forever ago? Mary laughed again, looking up into the sky. The clouds were amazing. She tried to tell Hikari and John about it, but she couldn't remember how, so she just laid back and enjoyed it. John was singing something. She fell asleep.

When she woke up, it was darker and John and Hikari were gone. She shivered. Her dress was really just a long mens shirt with a belt and it was pretty cold out. She also didn't have any shoes.

Eventually, when she figured that John and Hikari were probably not coming back, she got up and left. Oh well. Live and let die. She'd probably never see them again.

She wandered through crowds of people. Apparently the concert was still going on. She idly wondered what the date was but decided that it didn't really matter.

"Heeeeyyyyy Maarryyyyyy!!!!" She turned around, intrigued and maybe still a bit high. She was having trouble focusing. Hikari was waving at her frantically from about ten feet away. Mary felt her face split into a huge smile and ran over to her. John was there too, and he was making out with a pretty girl about Mary's age with yellow flowers in her redish-brownish hair. They had a blanket. Mary liked to think that it was their blanket, but she couldn't really remember what it looked like.

Hikari kissed her cheeks and took her hands. Her pupils were dilated. Mary wanted some of what she had taken.

"John and me went on a walk to try to find some drinks because we were soo thirsty. And then we did and it was really good, but then we couldn't find you again!" Mary laughed and sat down next to John and the girl. They had stopped kissing, allowing Mary to get her first good look at the girl. John kissed her, and so did the mystery girl, her lips lingering a bit on Mary's. Mary smiled and took her hand. The girl laughed, she had beautiful eyes.

John laid back on the blanket and closed his eyes. He started laughing too.

"What's your name?" She asked the girl.

The girl smiled at her serenely. "I've stopped using it. Names are just tools used to tie us to each other and I want to be free." This makes perfect sense to Mary. "So if you have to get my attention you should touch me, you know?" Mary laughed and ran her hands all over her face and neck. The girl closed her eyes and leaned into the touches. Hikari came over from where she was dancing to sit down and touch the girl too.

They talk about nothing and everything. Mary tells her about the amazing clouds, and the girl says that she knows exactly what she means. They listen to the music and dance together, sometimes Hikari joins them. John wanders off with some guy and Hikari cries over it, saying that they all shared one soul and that he had taken some of it with him. Mary looks at the girl with flowers in her hair and thinks that Hikari might be right about them sharing a soul.

She falls asleep on the grass with the girl. The blanket is gone again, Hikari claims that John took it to with him to the netherworld.

When she wakes up, the girl is gone too. She wakes Hikari up, but she has no idea where she went either.

"Oh well." Hikari says, picking up the yellow flowers the girl left behind. "Live and let die I guess."

Mary nods, but can't help but feel like she's lost something precious.

**FOUR**

**Las Vegas, Nevada. 1991.**

"A White Russian." The man barely looks at her as he places his drink order. Mary doesn't blame him, they're in a casino in Vegas and Mary's a fully dressed bartender in a room full of strippers. Not to mention the dancer center stage tonight is Starlight.

Mary flicks her eyes up to the stage at the thought. She would never admit it, but getting to watch Starlight dance is her favorite part of her job at The Slippery Fox.

Starlight, Mary was sure that she had a proper name but she had no idea what it was, was currently in the middle of some kind of dip/rolling of the hips move that had Mary blushing but unable to avert her eyes. She wasn't necessarily the best or even the most beautiful dancer there. There was just something about her. Something in her eyes.

Mary shook her head slightly and got back to work. A White Russian. Old fashioned glass, ice, five cl vodka, two cl coffee liqueur, three cl fresh cream, straw. She hands it to the man who in turn hands her a five and leaves to go sit at a craps table or something. Mary cleans her work space, stealing glances at Starlight when ever she can.

Eventually, Starlight's set ends and she goes backstage. Mary is both saddened by this and relieved at the same time. At least she can focus on her work now.

Four hours later, Mary's shift is coming to an end and her feet hurt. She is really ready for her replacement to show up so she can go home.

"I'll have a Duncan MacLeod please." Mary turns her head and then freezes. It's Starlight, in jeans and a faded blue t-shirt. She's still wearing her stage make-up, which serves to emphasize her amazing eyes. Mary knows that she's making a fool of herself and that she should acknowledge her request or at the very least stop staring at her but she finds herself frozen. Starlight has never visited the bar before, Mary has never even seen her off of the stage. Starlight makes a face and opens her mouth to say something but Mary's brain suddenly catches up with her and she beats her to it.

"A Duncan MacLeod, coming right up." She turns around and quickly starts to prepare the drink. Cocktail glass, crushed ice, coke, sake, scotch whiskey. Mary pauses, steadying herself before turning back around to give the drink to Starlight, who isn't even looking at her anymore anyway. Mary feels a stab of disappointment, then embarrassment. Why was she behaving like this? And where the hell was her replacement? She sets the drink in front of her then moves away to tend to her other customers and her workstation, decidedly not looking at Starlight, except to accept payment for the drink and even then she doesn't meet her eyes.

She is gradually coming to terms with the fact that her replacement is not going to be showing up any time soon. Her feet throb at the thought of covering his shift _again_.

"Sherlock Holmes I'm going to kill you." She mutters under her breath as she wipes down the counter.

Starlight glances over at her. "Sherlock Holmes? What's he done now?" She's smirking at her.

Mary straightens up and throws the rag down onto the counter. "He's late for his shift." She glances over at the clock. "_Fifty minutes_ late for his shift." She's going to kill him. She's really going to kill him this time.

Starlight, okay it's time to get a legitimate name for her, laughs her swirls her drink. "Yeah he's been know to do that. Probably you won't see him until tomorrow at the soonest." Mary thinks she's probably right about that.

"Do you know him?"

Starlight rolls her eyes. "Oh yes. I most definitely know him, he's my older brother. Step brother actually. I need to see him about something before heading out."

Mary blinks. "Oh I see." She pauses. "Um, forgive me but what is your name? I know you as Starlight but..." She trails off.

"It's Irene. Irene Adler." Starlight, no Irene, smiles at her a lifts up her glass. "Can I get another?"

Mary re-fills her drink and hands it back to her. They wait for Sherlock together, talking and laughing and breaking only for Mary to fill drinks.

When Sherlock finally shows up, _three hours_ later, Mary and Irene are swapping stories about their Vegas experiences. Mary is surprised to find that they have many things in common, like both of them being born and raised just a few miles outside of the city. They look up as he hurriedly washes his hands and finishes straightening his uniform.

Mary glares at him and Irene rolls her eyes. He throw his hands up defensively. "Before you say anything I'll have you know that I was conducting some very important experiments."

"Oh I'm sure." Irene is smirking at him from behind her glass. "Of course you were conducting experiments, not getting high and having phone sex with doctor whats-his-name."

Sherlock lifts his head from where he's rummaging around in the cupboard to grin at her. "Watson."

Mary rolls her eyes. "Well I hope Doctor Watson appreciates the fact that I'm dead on my feet. And I hope you appreciate the fact that you're turning all of your tips from what's left of tonight to me to make up for it." She does her best to look stern, though she's really not that mad anymore.

Irene sets her drink down and stands up. "Well, I just wanted to check in with you to make sure you've got everything. Like, you know the keys to the apartment" Sherlock waves his hand to indicate he does. "Alright then, see you later." She leans forward to kiss his cheek. He turns his face at the last moment and she kisses his nose.

She rolls her eyes, straightening up. "Yeah. Probably I'm not going to miss you all that much." She turns to Mary and gives her a little wave.

"See you around Mary." Mary returns the wave with a small smile and Irene turns around and walks away.

Mary stares after her for a moment, feeling content before turning to Sherlock.

"Why didn't you tell me Starlight was your step-sister?"

Sherlock shrugged. "How is it any of your business?" He's got a point, but Mary presses the issue anyway.

"Well it just would have been nice to know is all." A thought occurs to her. "Did she say she was going on a trip?"

Sherlock flicks his eyes over to her and replies distractedly. "No, she's moving to LA."

Mary's shocked. "Oh." She looks over to where she last saw her. She's not devastated, but she's not happy about this either.

"Well that's a shame, I liked her." Sherlock ignores her, moving on to fill drink orders, muttering something about the chemical make-up of alcohol under his breath.

Mary just stands there, staring out into the crowd. "I feel like we could have been...friends."

Sherlock looks over at her. "What was that?" Mary meets his gaze but has to look away. She always feels like he can look right through her.

"Nothing." And it's really nothing. But Mary thinks that, given the chance, it could have been something.

**FIVE**

**Raleigh, North Carolina. 2010.**

"What do you mean, 'moving to San Diego'?" Irene is making a fuss in public, just like Mary knew she would. She never should have told her. Or at least she should have waited until they were at Irene's house.

"How many ways could I possibly mean that?" Mary is glaring bitterly ahead of her. She feels like throwing her lacrosse stick, it's not like she'll need it anyway. Bridemont high school has no lacrosse team. "My dad got a promotion or something, and now we're moving to San Diego."

Irene has stopped walking. She's just standing in the middle of the sidewalk. "Well that's unacceptable." She says this like it'll change something. Mary wants to hit her.

"Will you just come on? We're almost at your house and we can talk about this inside."

Irene scowls but starts walking again. The walk the rest of the way in silence, their backpacks bouncing against their backs and their lacrosse cleats make chattering sounds against the sidewalk. Irene is pissed at her, Mary can tell. Which is amazingly unfair because it's not like Mary chose to move. It's not like she had any say in the matter.

They climb up the steps to Irene's front door, Mary goes in first using the key under the mat. Irene slams the door behind her. Mary thinks that Irene need to the be the big girl in the situation for once in her life. Mary's the one with the problem, not Irene.

Irene throws down her stuff and starts up the stairs. Mary follows her, rage building. Who does Irene think she is getting mad at Mary for this? They make it to her room and Irene slams that door too.

Mary has had enough. "Will you stop with the door slamming?"

Irene spins around and glares at her. "Oh I'm sorry. Was I bothering you?"

"Yes!" She's pissed. Beyond pissed. She's not even sure why at this point. It was just a door. "It bothers me that you slam doors and that you steal my stuff and that you steal other people stuff!" Irene had a bit of a theft problem, she didn't need things, she just took them and Mary could never figure out why. It wasn't rational and Mary always had to be lookout.

"Well I'm so sorry about that! I guess it's a good thing that you won't have to be bothered by me anymore!" Her hands are clenched into fists.

That was violently unfair. "You have no right to be angry about this! I'm the one getting screwed! You'll still be here!"

Irene throws up her hands. "Yeah! Your right! I'll still be here! And I'll be all alone because _you are leaving me_!" The last part is shrieked. It throws Mary off long enough to clear her head.

They stare at each other. Irene has tears in her eyes, she looks away first.

"I'm not leaving you because I want to Irene." Mary feels bad. For both of them. She thinks she might throw up.

Irene laughs and crosses the room to sit down on the bed. Mary joins her and takes her hands in hers.

"I don't want you to go." Irene is crying now. Mary has to hold back tears.

"Yeah. Me either." They cry quietly together before they wear themselves out and fall asleep. When they wake up, they go down stairs and eat a pint of ice cream and talk about how they'll stay in touch and go to the same college and how their kids will play with each other and get married. They both know it's not true. They'll drift apart.

Not to mention the fact that Mary is a lesbian so probably she won't have children. She's never told Irene. She thinks that maybe she should tell her now, but decides against it, figuring that they don't really need anymore heavy stuff right then.

She never does tell her.

On the day of the move, Mary walks over to Irene's house and they go for a bike ride. They say very little, mostly just trying to be in each others company for a little longer. They take pictures of every stop they make. They fill up an entire camera with pictures of each other and of Mary's soon to be former home. They ride back to Mary's house and give each other a last hug and a smile. Mary kisses Irene on the forehead, and Irene laughs. Mary gets into her parents van and they drive away, Mary watching Irene get smaller and smaller.

She cries for days.

**AND THE ONE THAT MEANT THE MOST.**

**USS Inspired. 2258.**

"Mary!" The voice rings out over the bridge. Mary spins around, spooked. It's Irene dressed in science blues, a shiny Starfleet insignia on her left breast. Mary can't help but meet her half way as she runs across the bridge to hug her. She's only human, and Irene was supposed to have been assigned to another ship.

Someone clears their throat. They look up, it's Captain Lestrade, his face scrunched up in an unattractive expression of disapproval. "Do you ladies need some time to your selves? Or can we proceed?" Mary flushes. Irene smiles brightly at him.

"We apologize Captain, it won't happen again." Mary thinks that she probably shouldn't talk back to him like that, but since it's Irene she'll probably get away with it. She should have been a diplomat.

He glares, but turns around without another word to go talk to Clarkey, his First Officer and Head of Security. Irene rolls her eyes discreetly, mouthing 'later' as she walks over to her post on the other side of the bridge. Irene is a science officer, Mary isn't one hundred percent sure what she does exactly, but it has to do with equations and formulas and other science-type things that bore her. Mary smiles slightly and turns back to her station. Mary is a communications officer, basically what she does is she translates frequencies and knows a tons of languages, which is sure to come in handy while dealing with alien races. Mary likes to think her job is more important than Irenes.

Her first shift ever is actually pretty boring. They pull out of space dock and immediately go to warp! Which would be interesting if the planet they were going to wasn't like, a million light years away. They won't be there for days. She hopes this is just a bad start to an otherwise exciting and interesting five year mission and not a sign of things to come.

Eventually, (finally), her shift is over and her replacement, a nice seeming girl named Hikari, shows up. She waits for Irene to finish up what ever super-important science-y thing she's doing, and then they get into the turbo lift together. As soon as the doors close, they're hugging each other and squealing like children. Mary doesn't usually act like this, but she had resigned herself to being assigned to a different ship than Irene, and to have that suddenly fix itself is amazing to her. Besides, they're only twenty-two and twenty-four. They're allowed to be crazy some of the time, even if they're big bad Starfleet officers now.

Mary pulls back, though still hanging on to Irenes shoulders. "How?" She needs to know this yesterday.

"I don't know! I was actively getting on the transport for the other ship and some Commander shows up out of nowhere and tells me I've been transferred!" She's jumping up and down. Mary, who was always the more sensible one, worries vaguely that the lift will stall.

It doesn't, and they get of on deck seven. Mary, who wasn't really paying that much attention, can't help but notice now that neither of them live on this floor.

"Uh. Irene?"

"No, I did it on purpose, this floor has Med Bay." Mary doesn't really see why Irene wants to go to Med Bay, but isn't up for questioning her. Irene grabs her hand as they walk, making Mary flush. She and Irene had a one night stand a couple of months ago, but haven't really talked about it since. Mary keeps wanting to bring it up, but doesn't want to make it awkward. Besides, she can't even be sure if Irene remembers, she was pretty drunk at the time. They both were. Stupid Sherlock Parties.

She's still wondering why they're where they are until they cross the threshold and Mary sees John.

"John!" Mary is pleasantly surprised. "I didn't know you were on this ship too." He glares at her.

"Yeah? Me either." He turns his head to glare at someone to Mary's left. Mary turns to look. Oh. Of course.

"Sherlock Holmes, what did you do?"

He looks over at her from where he's getting his hand bandaged by a pretty nurse. Already.

He grins at them. "Which time?" The nurse giggles.

Irene laughs. Mary scowls. It sort of bothers her how charmed by him Irene seems to always be.

"You know very well which time." Watson growls from where he's standing.

Sherlock puts on an innocent face. "Actually, I don't." He looks over to Mary and Irene. "Do you mean what did I do to my hand? Or what did I do to get Watson on this ship instead of the Antaris? OR did you mean what did I do to get my scintillating wit and dashing good looks?" The nurse giggles again. Watson rolls his eyes and comes over to take the gauze out of her hands. He shoos her away.

Watson winds the gauze around his hand in violently, slamming it down onto the tray when he finishes. "Just tell them, Holmes."

Holmes smiles brightly up at him. "Which story do you wish me to tell dear friend?" Watson throws up his hands and walks away.

"Mary, Irene, I'll talk to you later. Holmes?" Sherlock looks over at him, smirking. "Get out of my Med Bay."

Sherlock jumps off the bio-bed, giving Watson a mock salute. "Will do my friend. Ladies?"

Irene rolls her eyes and follows him out. Mary lingers, shooting Watson a sympathetic smile before following after them.

By the time she catches up with them, Sherlock seems to be in the middle of some sort of grand tale.

"And then I said to him, 'either you pull strings to put Watson on the Inspired, or I will reveal to the Academy certain sensitive information about you trafficking Klingon contraband as a side venture.'"

"And this is your Advanced Programming Professor?"

"Yes. Professor Moriarty."

"Oh! Are you sure you should have done that though? I mean, I've dealt with him before, he was my Intro to Astro-Physics Professor. He's bad news."

"Yes, well, I'm sure it will be fine." Sherlock seems completely at ease, but he's carefully not looking Irene in the eye. Mary reads body language for a living, and that is suspicious. He's hiding something.

"Is that all then, Mr. Holmes?" He turns to her, his expression carefully blank.

"Why, oh course. What else would there be?" Mary narrows her eyes at him.

Irene sighs. "Just tell us, Sherlock. You know you're dying to."

He gives her a sidelong glance. "Well, alright, but not here. We should move anyway, we're blocking the hallway." Mary wishes she could just make people do what she want just by telling them to like Irene does. Everything would be so much easier.

Irene shoots her a triumphant smile behind Sherlock's back as they continue on their way to- Hm.

"Where are we going?"

"To my department, I have a shift in ten minutes and I want to check some things first."

"And what exactly is your department?"

He looks over at her, mischief in his eyes. "Engineering."

Oh, God.

"Which part of engineering?" This is making her really nervous. Didn't they know he was crazy? Were they crazy?

"The warp cores. And the computers. And pretty much all of it. You know, because I've been made Department Head."

They were crazy!

Irene is laughing like a maniac as they get into the lift that will take them to the bottom of the ship where the warp cores are. Mary doesn't know weather to laugh or resign. She thinks she might be in shock. A thought occurs to her.

"Did your illegal blackmail include you being made Head of Engineering?"

"No. I am incredibly insulted that you would think that of me Mary, as I am a man of great personal integrity." Mary snorts. She can't help it. But she does believe him. For all his bad behavior, she doesn't actually think he would do something like that, if for no other reason than the trouble he would face if he was caught. Blackmail to get a friend transferred was a court martial at the worst. Blackmail to become a Department Head was serious jail time at the best.

Irene has gotten bored. "So what did you want to tell us?"

He plays with his uniform, red just like Mary's (why were communications, engineering, and security uniforms all the same color anyway? Did that make sense?) and already stained with grease.

"Yes. I thought you would be interested to know how Irene came to be assigned to the Inspired. Be sure to send Professor Moriarty a nice Christmas present to make up for it for me."

Mary puts her face in her hands. Irene smacks him on the side of the head.

"Sherlock! You didn't!" He did. Mary can tell.

He's unrepentant, and to be honest, Mary isn't that mad. How can she be? Irene's not really mad either, but Mary knows that she'll side with Watson on this to try to teach him a lesson about respecting authority. Key word being 'try'. Mary also knows that she owes him a big favor.

The lift stops, and Sherlock steps out to go do his job. Mary and Irene say that they'll see him later, still pretending to be mad, even though they all know they're pretending. Sherlock waves them off distractedly as he sees something mechanical that he's authorized to play with now. Mary's still a bit sick over that. It just shouldn't have happened.

They ride the lift up to their floor, which is the same, so that's pretty cool. And they're rooms are only three doors down from each other, which is even better.

They pass by Mary's door and as Irene enters the code to her door, Mary is reminded of their first day at the Academy, when they locked themselves out of their shared dorm room and had to wait for security to come help them. It had been a nice bonding tool. They don't encounter such problems this time.

Irene's room is just a standard ensigns' room. Mary's will be pretty much the same. She has the room to herself, except for the bathroom, which she shares with the woman next door whom Irene has not met yet. Mary hasn't met hers either. She wonders idly if there is some sort of regulation about switching rooms, and if not, if they'll be able to convince someone to switch so that they can be bathroom buddies. She makes a mental note to ask.

She turns around to see Irene sitting on the bed looking at her. She's swinging her feet and her uniform is so short that Mary can see up it. She blushes and turns around quickly, hoping that Irene didn't notice. She pretends to fuss with one of Irenes' boxes, suddenly and irrationally nervous.

Irene laughs quietly from the bed.

Mary can't help it, she turns back around to see that Irene is laying down now, still looking at her. Her dress has ridden up even more, but it's Irenes' hair that catches and holds Mary's attention, spread out behind her. And her eyes. Irenes' eyes have always struck Mary at the worst of times. She fidgets with the bottom of her uniform, sure she should do something to make this less awkward, but has no idea what.

Irene smiles at her and holds out her arms. "Com'eer." Mary doesn't want to.

She does anyway, climbing onto the bed and curling up with her." Irene's smaller than her, but she holds Mary in her arms anyway, letting Mary rest her head on her shoulder, their legs intertwined.

Irene ruins it by talking, just like Mary knew she would. "Do you remember that night we had sex? After Sherlock's party?" Mary freezes. Almost unable to believe that Irene just said that, but not quite, because it's Irene, and Irene just does stuff like that. All the time.

Mary hopes that Irene will drop it, but Irene is not in a charitable mood today it seems. "Mary? Did you hear me?"

"Yes." It's almost a whisper.

"Well do you? Remember, that is."

Mary is having problems breathing. She loves Irene, she doesn't want to have this conversation now, when they're finally back together. She doesn't want to mess this up. But Irene leaves her no choice. And Mary sort of hates her for that.

"Yes, I remember."

Irene is silent. Mary looks up to see that she is staring at the celling.

"Why? Hm. Why didn't you, say anything? In the morning I mean. Or any time after that?"

Mary chooses her words carefully. "Because, I." She stops, and Irene looks down at her. Mary holds her gaze. "I didn't want to, mess this up. If you didn't...feel the same way I did. It just seemed easier." She figures she might as well be honest at this point.

Irene is still looking at her. Mary doesn't look away, even though she wants to, badly. The silence stretches, and Mary finds herself blushing. It's Irenes eyes. They do things to her. They've always done things to her.

"Well, then." Irene flicks her eyes down to Mary's lips for a moment, and suddenly Mary gets it. It just clicks.

She slowly, so slowly so that Irene knows exactly what she's doing, tilts her head up, and presses her lips against Irenes, just for a second. Then she pulls back, heart pounding.

Irene grins like an idiot, and Mary feels like one as she starts laughing with her.

They spend the rest of the day together, they do each others make-up, pass each other notes during lunch in the mess, Sherlock and Watson are there too, and Watson has apparently forgiven Sherlock for the moment. They go down to the observation deck and look at the stars together, have some drinks in Irenes room after Gamma shift, and Mary takes dozens of pictures of the ship with her PADD. She never wants to forget anything about this day.

They fall asleep in Irenes bed, too tired after their first day of space exploration to do anything more fun. Mary runs her hands through Irenes hair and Irene memorizes Mary's face with her hands, and fall asleep in each others arms.

**

* * *

**

**Yeah so. Lots of fun was had while writing this. I felt like they got a little OCC at some parts. Hm. **

**But yeah. I can tottaly see Watson being the McCoy of the Inspired. And Sherlock is the crazy gut in the basement lol. Also I think Uhura would punch me if she read this b/c of how I made her job sound. It really is important, Mary just undersells things.**

**Ummm. And oh yeah. For the third AU, I have no idea what kind of drugs Mary is on, I'm pretty sure drugs don't make you hallucinate AND fall asleep at the same time, but w/e. Plot device.**

**Byeee! (:**


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